Mr Oliver Schmid-Schönbein is a co-founder, partner and non-executive director of Swiss Management Forum. He is also a leading expert in Europe in the field of sustainability management or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). He has been working in this field since the late 80’s.

Oliver, a regular lecturer in university degree programmes, carries a master in economics from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. He spent three years with former Swiss Bank Corporation (today part of UBS) and was involved in the development of the first corporate environmental strategy of the bank, as well as the eco-balance methodology for financial institutions.

In this session, he first introduced the concept of sustainable development and what it means for the business world. He also showed how the principles of sustainability have an impact on corporate strategy, to what risks and opportunities they lead and how they can be integrated in strategic management as well as in daily business.

New tools such as the sustainability balanced scorecard were presented and Oliver demonstrated through real company cases how the inclusion of social and environmental aspects can lead to competitive advantage with customers and increased financial returns.